Otherwise engaged? Learning from non‐participation in research with care‐experienced students
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21445003 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lynette Shotton (0000-0001-8934-3955, Northumbria University Newcastle upon Tyne UK), Tom Disney (0000-0002-6080-7709, Northumbria University Newcastle upon Tyne UK), Andrea Carrick (0009-0001-6265-0469, Northumbria University Newcastle upon Tyne UK), Laura Thurman (Northumbria University Newcastle upon Tyne UK) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-21 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | British Educational Research Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0141-1926 • E-ISSN: 1469-3518 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/berj.70236 |
| OpenAlex | W7165547088 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 33 |
This paper explores what can be learned when educational research “fails.” Drawing on a Welland Trust–funded project in the North East of England that aimed to support care‐experienced students transitioning from further to higher education, we reflect on why, despite sustained effort, there was a lack of engagement. We situate this “failure” within wider debates on participation and ethics in research with marginalised people. Rather than treating non‐participation as absence or dis‐engagement, we argue that it constitutes data ‐ a response that signposts to systemic, relational and methodological tensions between researchers, institutions and the communities they seek to involve. Considering research fatigue, institutional gatekeeping and top‐down assumptions within widening‐participation work and drawing on concepts of refusal, silence and relational ethics, we reposition “failure” as an opportunity for learning about how research constructs and constrains voice, agency and belonging. We conclude with implications for design and governance of future studies with care‐experienced and other seldom‐heard groups, emphasising slower timelines, genuinely co‐created processes and attention to relational trust
Agency (philosophy) · Corporate governance · Educational research · Gatekeeping · Higher education · Silence · Work (physics) · Child Welfare and Adoption · Higher Education Practises and Engagement · Higher Education Research Studies
R-Words
Making Space for Failure in Geographic Research
Thinking with Bourdieu
Accounting for research fatigue in research ethics
The contribution of the social network of care leavers to a successful transition to adulthood
Relational Autonomy as a Way to Recognise and Enhance Children’s Capacity and Agency to be Participatory Research Actors
Professional foster carer and committed parent
Building and utilising resilience
We’re just kids as well’
Structural model of parenting dimension, media usage type and body mass index in Korean preschool children
Social violence and the trivialising effects of youth in school bullying
Pragmatism as a Research Paradigm and Its Implications for Social Work Research
Confession, catharsis, or cure? Rethinking the uses of reflexivity as methodological power in qualitative research
The four pillars of tertiary student engagement and success
Child focused research
Applying co-production principles in research
Methodological Immaturity in Childhood Research
The End of Intimacy
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |